Restoring Broken Lives
“God has restored everything
that I thought I had lost.”
My name is Mark. I grew up in a loving Christian family. From a young
age I was taught to work hard and to love God. I was a good kid. I enjoyed sports and liked being with family and friends.
When I got into high school I started experimenting with alcohol and marijuana. I began to think that I
had to get high or drunk to have fun. It wasn’t until I injured my shoulder that my addiction began. I was
prescribed painkillers and after a few months of taking them I was hooked. I began to crush my pills up
and snort them so they would make me higher.
At first I thought I didn’t have a problem but I got so dependent on the pain killers that I had to use them
just to function or feel normal. I started getting several prescriptions through the mail from a doctor in
Florida. My family kept trying to get me help but I refused. As my addiction grew I couldn’t get enough.
I began injecting heroine into my veins.
I was able to maintain a job and I was making really good money, but I was spending every dime I
made on my addiction. I had become someone I didn’t even know. I spent thousands of dollars each
week to feed my desire for drugs. After realizing that my life was out of control, I started searching for
help. I began taking suboxone but that did nothing to break my addiction. I was trading one drug for
another. I then tried secular rehabs, but I had no success.
While working out of town I ran out of drugs, knowing I couldn’t function without them I drove home and
bought enough drugs to get me through the rest of the week. I never made it back to where I was working because I got arrested. I was given three years of probation, but I continued to use. I failed a drug
test and was sent back to jail. I violated my probation and the judge sentenced me to prison.
I couldn’t believe that my life had turned out this way. I felt like I had ruined everything. While I was in
jail awaiting my transfer to prison my mom started telling me about Teen Challenge. I applied with the
courts for reconsideration and I was granted the opportunity to enroll into the Appalachian Teen Challenge Training Center.
I knew from the time I arrived on campus, that Teen Challenge is where I would find hope. I have surrendered my life to God and he has taken away my desire for drugs. God has restored everything that I
thought I had lost. He is healing my famiIy and my mind. I am so thankful for God using Teen Challenge
to give me a new life!
“I am amazed at the new life God has given me!”
At a very young age, I began experimenting with drugs. I wanted to be anyone
but the person I was. My name is Brandi, and my addiction started with muscle
relaxers, marijuana, and alcohol. Drugs took control of my life quickly, causing
me to overdose when I was a teenager. Even after I faced death, I continued
using. I was arrested for distributing drugs and placed on probation. My life
was mess and became more addicted than ever. I started using cocaine and pretending that life was one big
party. I lived in chaos, but I didn’t care about anything but getting high.
In and out of abusive relationships, I watched my family suffer the pain of my self
-destructive lifestyle. At the
age of twenty I had my first child. Being a new mother wasn't enough to change me. Instead of caring for my
son, my time was consumed by my addiction. I spent several years heavily sedated by oxycontin. When it
would no longer get me high, I moved on to heroine. Drugs were the only thing that mattered to me.
In April of 2012, I started down the path that led me to Teen Challenge. I was arrested on multiple felony
charges and for the first time in my life, I realized how desperately I needed help. My mother found out about
Teen Challenge and God made a way for me to come to the Training Center. I am no longer the hopeless person I once was. Through Teen Challenge and God, I have been rescued from my addiction. I am learning how
to be a Godly mother to my son and I am amazed at the new life God has given me!
March Nutritional Needs
Milk
Canned Goods
Bread
Butter
Peanut Butter
Eggs
Ground Beef
Cereal
Cheese (Shredded & Sliced)
Chips
Canned Soups (Assorted)
Ketchup
We also need cough drops and cold medicine (alcohol free & pseudoephedrine free).
We Have a New Mailing Address:
1651 Unity Road
Princeton, WV 24739
Our campus is still located at the same physical address on the outskirts of Athens, West Virginia but our mailing
address is now Princeton, West Virginia. For a short time our envelopes may reflect our postal box in Athens. We
are in the process of making the change on our publications and envelopes. If your envelope reflects our Athens
address, we will still receive your mail through our postal box. If you are mailing without our envelope, please
send correspondence to our Princeton address.